By CHARLES ANZALONE

The Department of Media Study’s PLASMA speaker series
brings cutting-edge guests to UB to discuss innovations in media
art and culture shaping the new millennium communication world.

Held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Mondays in 112 Center for the Arts
during the spring semester, the PLASMA series is free and open to
the public.

Each guest speaker draws on the expertise of the Media Study
faculty to bring internationally celebrated artists to discuss
varied arts practices, models, modes, examples, and experiences in
media arts, according to Loss Pequeno Glazier, director of
UB’s Electronic Poetry Center and a professor in the
Department of Media Study.

“PLASMA's excellence lies in its range and depth of its
presenters,” says Glazier.

“The series really serves as a kind of hub as to how our
courses in new media, digital poetics, game studies, locative
media, robotics, installation, media theory and performance arts
can be experienced.”

The series brings to Buffalo celebrated theorists and artists
who are exhibiting in some of the world’s most renowned
museums and galleries, and writing on the cutting edge of new media
theory and expression, he says.

PLASMA, an acronym for Performances, Lectures and Screenings of
Media Art, showcases the university’s Department of Media
Study and is known for its audience interaction with guest
speakers, Glazier says.

“In this series you can see and interact with artists that
you would encounter in New York, Europe and Latin America,”
he says. “It is truly an offering of a rich experience for
the University at Buffalo, the city and Western New York to be able
to see such a range and experience such expertise that you would
otherwise have to travel to a range of world cities to
experience.

“The series provides, if not a range of expressive
answers, but raises intriguing questions, exploring new avenues in
the digital age, who we are, how we interact and where we are
going.”

The program continues through May 2.

For more information on the remaining program dates and
biographies of the speakers, visit the PLASMA
website.